Thursday 8 March 2012

Danny Bhoy: That's no Joke

My wife and I sometimes watch "Just for Laughs" on CBC. We know the importance of humour, and enjoy laughing and playing. One of the comics we saw on the program and liked was Danny Bhoy. CBC sensors the show, and what we saw was good and funny.

We heard Danny Bhoy was coming to St.John's, so we got tickets and went to see his show last night.

It wasn't sensored.

There was some language, some vulgarity, neither of which was over the top. Yet his show would have been just as funny without it. That's beside the point I want to make.

Some of his best material, I thought, was the stuff that came out of his experience. He could see the humour in his life - which is very good.

What I didn't like about his show, and it seems fairly normative in comedy, is to make jokes of Jesus and the Church.

In addition to a few "Jesus" jokes, Danny Bhoy said that he questions whether there is "eternal" life, and that he could never be part of organized religion.

Although Danny has some funny life experiences that we can all laugh at, it is too bad for him that he lacks the deeper experience of what Life is.

We all have funny life experiences that we can share and laugh at together.
But human life is of course a lot more than that.

In the stillness and silence of my heart, as I centre on the Word and Love that Jesus is, I encounter the Source of Life.

We all share this Source of Life, the Divine. It is what makes us equal and united as human beings.

The Church's role is to help facilitate, encourage, and support this spiritual and inner journey.
As this journey is shared with others, the Church's role is to organize people, to identify needs within the community, and to respond with love and compassion.

Freedom, equality, democracy. These all come directly out of the Christian religion, and over the centuries, and across nations and peoples, have formed the democratic society that we enjoy in Canada today.

There is eternal life.
There is an absolute need for organized religion.

That's no joke.

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